New University of Alabama president Stuart Bell: ‘Quality will always be a focus’
Al.com – June 20
The incoming president of the University of Alabama is looking at how to grow the state’s flagship school while managing the momentum of what’s already been a decade of rapid growth. Stuart Bell, who was approved Thursday as president by University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, will replace outgoing president Judy Bonner when she retires July 15. Bell, currently provost and executive vice president at Louisiana State University and previously a professor at Alabama, rejoins the university at a time when the university is looking to address how to maintain growth while fostering diversity in the student body. In 2014, the university reached a record with 36,155 undergraduate, professional and graduate students enrolled for the fall semester. Just a decade earlier, enrollment totaled 20,969.
Montgomery Advertiser – June 20
Moulton Advertiser – June 20
WTVA (Tupelo, Miss.) – June 20
Franklin Daily Journal (Ind.) – June 20
Biloxi Sun Herald (Miss.) – June 20
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – June 20
Tuscaloosa News (gallery) – June 18
UA trustees create prize honoring Judy Bonner
Tuscaloosa News – June 20
University of Alabama President Judy Bonner will become the namesake of an annual prize meant to recognize “unselfish service” by a faculty or staff member to the Capstone’s undergraduate community. As Bonner enters the last month of her presidency, the UA Board of Trustees accepted a $1 million gift from Trustee John D. Johns and his wife, Nancy, to establish an endowment for the Judy Bonner Presidential Medallion Prize. “I cannot think of a more perfect tribute to Judy Bonner than this,” said president pro tem of the board Karen Brooks. “The prize will likely become the university’s highest honor for those who have gone above and beyond.” The trustees accepted the $1 million to establish the prize in honor of Bonner’s legacy on Friday. Bonner was not at the meeting but released a statement through the university. “I am so honored that the Judy Bonner Presidential Medallion Prize will recognize our most deserving individuals who have positively impacted and made lasting contributions to the Capstone experience for our undergraduate students,” Bonner said.
7 business leaders to be inducted into Business Hall of Fame in November
Tuscaloosa News – June 21
Seven state business leaders will be inducted in November into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, which is housed at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce. The 2015 inductees are: Samuel Ginn, Palo Alto, Calif.; William C. Hulsey, Birmingham; J. Smith Lanier II, Lanett; James C. Lee III, Birmingham; Marvin L. Mann, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; Alma Gates Scroggins, Atlanta; and Mike Warren, Birmingham. Ginn is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in industrial management and holds an honorary degree in engineering from Auburn. His 40-year career in telecommunications began as a student engineer in 1960. The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University is named in his honor and he founded the Ginn Family Foundation in 2005. Hulsey is UA alumnus and is the former CEO and current chairman of Arlington Properties Inc., a development, construction and management company that specializies in multifamily.
Unemployment rate rises for most of Alabama in May
Tuscaloosa News – June 19
The unemployment rate rose in May for Alabama and most of its 67 counties. Unemployment rose 1 percent to 5.9 percent in the Tuscaloosa metro area of Tuscaloosa, Hale and Greene counties. Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, up from 5.8 percent in April. The state rate is seasonally adjusted while the county rates are not. That’s one reason the county and metro areas had higher rate increases last month. Although the unemployment rate increased, the fundamentals still look good, said Ahmad Ijaz, director of economic forecasting at the University of Alabama’s Center of Business and Economic Research. “The increase in the unemployment rate was primarily due to a large increase in the labor force, which at this stage of the recovery is encouraging,” he said. “The unemployment rate continues to increase at the beginning of the economic recoveries as more people re-enter the labor force, but since this recovery has been pretty sluggish, we are just now seeing an increase in labor force which is pushing the unemployment rate higher.” The unemployment rate rose in May for Alabama and most of its 67 counties.
Anniston Star – June 19
Gadsden Times – June 19
Troy Messenger – June 19
County’s unemployment rate shows slight increase for May
Clanton Advertiser – June 21
Chilton County’s preliminary unemployment rate of 6.1 percent for May showed a slight increase of 1.2 percent from April. The revised unemployment rate for April was 4.9 percent, which was down from the May 2014 rate of 5.6 percent. Gov. Robert Bentley announced on Friday that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted May unemployment rate is 6.1 percent. “Earlier this year, leading economists at the University of Alabama predicted that our wage and salary employment would grow by 33,800,” Bentley said in a release. “I am proud to say that only five months into 2015, we’ve added 34,800 jobs, already surpassing job growth predictions. Our effort to create jobs is strong, and we will continue until every Alabamian has an opportunity to find a job.” Alabama Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington said although there is an increase in the unemployment rate this month the news is not bad. “Both employment measures registered gains, which is clear evidence that Alabamians are going back to work,” Washington said in a release.
Local jobless rates show improvement from last year
Decatur Daily – June 19
The unemployment rates in Morgan, Limestone and Lawrence counties improved in May from the same month a year ago, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Labor. Morgan County’s numbers improved the most, with unemployment dropping from 6.5 percent in May 2014 to 5.9 percent last month … A growing labor force drives unemployment rates up, said Ahmad Ijaz, an economic researcher at the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research. In April, Morgan County’s labor force consisted of 55,166 people. That number jumped to 55,898 in May. Limestone and Lawrence counties also experienced an increase in their labor forces. Lawrence’s labor force numbers jumped from 13,814 in April to 14,083 in May. Statewide, the labor force saw an increase of 14,026 people from April to May. “The increase in labor force could be because of several factors, such as teachers, high school students and recent college graduates looking for jobs during the summer, or people who had given up on looking for work may be feeling much more optimistic about the economy and re-entering the workforce,” Ijaz said.
LOCAL Q&A: Paaras Agrawal, University of Alabama student
Tuscaloosa News – June 20
This week, we will be talking with Paaras Agrawal, a Tuscaloosa native and University of Alabama student who spent the past semester studying abroad in Ireland. Q: Where in Ireland were you? A: I lived in the capital city of Dublin. Q: What were you doing there? A: I spent more than four months studying at the University College Dublin (UCD). The University of Alabama has an incredible amount of opportunities to pursue education at foreign universities, and I was lucky enough to find a perfect program at UCD. Q: What was the hardest thing to adjust to while living overseas? A: The hardest thing getting used to was using public transportation. You have to time your journeys, whether by bus or train, well in advance, and be prepared to adapt. There were a few times when transportation workers would go on strike, and this essentially crippled all citywide transportation and could leave you stranded. Fortunately, once you understood the different routes and timetables, it was a pretty reliable system.
South Baldwin residents surveyed on healthcare opportunities, shortfalls
Gulf Coast News Today – June 19
Residents of Foley and south Baldwin County have been asked to express their thoughts about the area’s healthcare opportunities and shortfalls. The University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development — in conjunction with the Alabama Small Business Development Center —is conducting a Healthcare Services Survey for south Baldwin County. Yolanda Johnson, Business Counselor with the Alabama Small Business Development Center Network, spoke to members of the Foley City Council about the survey during their meeting Monday evening. “We all want to complain about things we want in our area and better services we would like to see,” Johnson said. “So this is one way that we can give our personal opinion about the healthcare services we have and the ones that we think that our citizenry and individual citizens want.”
Lasting bonds: Students emerge from WAL camp as leaders, friends
Shelby County Reporter – June 18
More than 40 high school students competing in team-building events on the University of Montevallo’s main quad June 18 could have passed for longtime friends. Most of the students, who are participating in the fourth annual Walsh Academy of Leadership, had only known each other for a few hours before they were divided into groups for the “Amazing Race” competition on the quad. “That’s a big focus of the WAL – building relationships,” Libby Holmes, with the Youth Leadership Development Program, said. “(It is) teaching them they can make friendships and relationships with anyone if they are willing to cross those lines and break those barriers.” The WAL is a three-day, two-night leadership experience and summer camp for rising juniors and seniors representing 45 high schools, colleges and universities in Alabama … Elliot Spillers, the University of Alabama’s SGA president and WAL and YLDP alumnus, spoke to students before their evening activities. Camp will close June 20 with graduation and a keynote speech from Walsh, followed by a reception. “It’s a really great networking tool for them,” counselor Chris Patillo, a junior at UM, said of the camp’s impact on participants. “It’s great for self-esteem and getting people to open up and find their way.”
GUEST COLUMNIST: Military power without leaders proves useless
Tuscaloosa News – June 20
The mightiest fighting machine in the world; it sounds like an ad for a documentary on the end of World War II. Thousands of bombers pummeling the Germans and Japanese into submission, dozens of aircraft carriers circling the Japanese islands like sharks coming in for the kill, Patton’s tanks grinding across the last of the Third Reich smoking and crumbling in ruins, the stuff of triumph and real military power. Keep that mental picture in mind as when some pundits and commentators use the “greatest” or “mightiest” fighting machine in the world, or words to that effect, to describe the U.S. military. The reality today is that while we may be a giant in some areas, we no longer have access to and/or control up to a third of the worlds’ resources anymore, as we did in the middle of the last century. We are no longer the “sleeping giant” of possibilities that we were on the eve of World War II. We are, in fact, living the illusion of inexhaustible and unbeatable military resources and power. (Larry Clayton is a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama. Readers can contact him at larryclayton7@gmail.com.)
COLLEGE NEWS: June 21
Tuscaloosa News – June 21
Auburn Montgomery – Joshua Kareem Brand of Tuscaloosa graduated with a bachelor degree in business administration on May 16; University of Alabama – Kristen Ellis, a native of Letohatchee, has received a grant from the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation to work with the nonprofit clean water advocacy organization Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Ellis, a senior majoring in public relations, will work as a communications intern for the group this summer. The grant is the highest honor that UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences bestows on a student.
Education Briefs
Trussville Tribune – June 21
Cameron Grondines, son of Darryl and Terri Grondines of Trussville, was named to the Furman University dean’s list for the 2015 spring semester. Furman’s dean’s list is composed of full-time undergraduate students who earn a grade point average of 3.4 or higher on a 4.0 scale … Hannah Zahedi, daughter of Dawn and Michael Zahedi of Trussville, was recently honored with other 2014-15 University of Alabama Rural Medical Scholars at the 18th Annual Rural Scholars Convocation. The Rural Medical Scholars Program is for students who plan to practice medicine in areas of Alabama designated “Health Professional Shortage Areas.” Zahedi graduated from The University of Alabama and will enter medical school this summer.